The term “program” as used herein can be a commercial type (e.g. advertisement) and/or a non-commercial type (e.g. an entertainment show), and it involves a programming signal (e.g. a television signal) obtained from a program signal source (e.g. a television station), originated by a program provider (e.g. a television network, an advertiser, or a production company) and reproduced as audio and/or video. The “broadcast” of the program can be over the airwaves, cable, satellite, or any other signal transmission medium. An “audience” for such program reproduction is constituted of the persons who perceive the program.
The program is “performed” by any reproduction equipment which results in some form that is perceptible to human beings, the most common being video and audio. The “reproduction equipment” is any and all types of units to convert a broadcast signal into human perceptible form.
The audience can be described as being “tuned” to a specific program signal source, such as a television (“TV”) or radio broadcast station. The word “tuned” is applied herein to all situations in which a person chooses to be an audience member of a program or programs being broadcast by that specific program signal source, such as by twisting a dial or operating a remote control device of a TV, for example, in order to set that TV so it can receive and perform the programs from that source.
The size of an audience can be important for any one of a number of reasons. For example, a TV show must have a minimum audience size in order to survive. It also affects advertising rates. TV and radio stations charge advertisers based on two variables, namely the number of people in the audience and the qualities of the viewers in the audience. Charges are based on a certain number of dollars per thousand viewers. It can cost an advertiser to broadcast a commercial on one TV show an amount several times what it would cost on another TV show. As regards the qualities of the audience, certain advertisers want to speak to young trendsetters, while other advertisers want to speak to older viewers (e.g. drug companies) or wealthier viewers (e.g. luxury car co.). To measure these audiences, national TV samples are taken daily in the seven largest U.S. cities for network TV shows only (approximately 4,000 to 5,000 homes are included in this sample). Paper and pencil diaries are used four times a year during 3-4-week measurement periods to measure the viewing habits in the 250 other large viewing markets. These four measurement periods are called “sweep weeks”, or “sweeps”. During this period of time, network and local stations make every attempt to boost their ratings. Prime movies are shown, plots for sitcoms are selected which are of maximum interest, and even newscasts carry special features. Another situation when it is valuable to entice viewers is when a programming change occurs, such as when the new season starts, when a replacement show is introduced or a change in the broadcast time of a program is made. If a show does not attract viewers within the first three weeks, it has to give refunds for lower audience counts to those advertisers that had commercials broadcast during that initial period. Therefore, audience size is important, for example, to producers of TV shows, to advertisers, and to the TV stations and networks who profit from the shows and the commercials.
The incentive for a person to watch, for example, a particular network TV show and thus become a member of its audience is, of course, that person's level of interest in the TV show in relation to the attractions of competing interests. Competing for that person's viewership are the other network TV shows then being broadcast, other forms of entertainment available in the house, such as cable TV and live radio programs, recorded audio/video programs, various types of entertainment available outside of the house, and of course a host of other activities. Program providers would find it advantageous to have some incentive, other than the program itself, for attracting a person away from all those competing entertainment and non-entertainment activities to tune into a specific program and thereby increase its audience size.
It would also be advantageous for the program provider to have an incentive that could keep the person from switching away from the program. Switching by the audience is undesirable because it reduces the person's exposure not only to the TV show but also to its commercials.
One type of incentive that is in wide usage for various purposes is to provide discount coupons for the purchase of products or services. This also could include free song downloads, contests and humor (e.g. jokes, bumper stickers). For reasons of brevity and convenience, the ensuing discussion related to the present invention will refer to the incentives it provides as discount coupons or reward coupons, or just “rewards” for short. However, this in no way limits the specific nature of the incentive(s) that can be used for this invention.
A technique that provides an incentive reward for persons to tune to a program signal source has been disclosed in U.S. patent application Ser. No. 10/391,907 filed Mar. 19, 2003, Publication No. 2004/0031046 A1. Such a reward can be issued automatically when certain reward issuance criteria are met. Also, the reward can be issued promptly upon those reward issuance criteria being met. In accordance with the technique disclosed therein, such a reward is issued in a form that is convenient for the person to redeem, and it must have adequate value. Also, the issuance criteria can be easily settable, controllable, and/or modifiable.
The content of U.S. Ser. No. 10/391,907 is hereby incorporated by reference. However, for the sake of convenience, a summary is presented below of some of its features which serve to assist in explaining the present invention.
As shown above the dotted line in FIG. 1, a program signal source 1, such as a TV broadcast station, generates a broadcast output signal 2 which is a combination of a programming signal 5, an identification (“ID”) code signal 7 and an event code signal 9. The ID code can be uniquely assigned to a local TV station or to a national TV network. The event code can be uniquely assigned to a specific program. One or the other code can be used by itself, or both can be used together. ID code 7 and/or event code 9 are provided along with the programming signal 5 in order to enable printing a reward coupon automatically upon certain criteria being met in connection with, for example, being tuned to the program signal source which is offering the rewards. Thus, the conventional programming signal 5 is encoded by encoder 6 with codes 7 and/or 9. The term “encoded” is used in the broadest sense to include any and all techniques for combining a programming signal with other signals for broadcasting them together by a well known, commonly used broadcast transmitter 8.
Signal 2 is received by program reproduction apparatus 3 which is capable of performing the programming signal, such as in video and/or audio, at a site of an audience member, such as in the home. The reproduction apparatus 3 also provides a signal 2A, related to signal 2, as an input to reward output apparatus 10 which is automatically actuated, when certain audience-related reward issuance criteria are met, to print a reward on a printer 37 located at the site of such audience member.
The specific broadcasting and encoding techniques chosen depend on various design considerations. The code signals can be either analog or digital. The encoding, transmission, detection and decoding of such data signals are conventional and readily apparent to anyone with ordinary skill in the art. Such specifics do not form a part of the present invention. Details thereof would add unnecessarily to the length and complexity of this description. Consequently, such details are not provided herein.
Broadcast receiver 11 of apparatus 3 processes the received programming signal 5 and inputs it, as signal 5A, to reproduction device 13. Thus, if apparatus 3 is a TV set, receiver 11 could be a tuner, and device 13 is the TV screen and its related circuitry and components.
The output signal 2A of receiver 11, which can contain ID code signal 7 and event code signal 9, is provided to decoder 15. Decoder 15 includes circuitry to extract a signal containing the code signals 7, 9 from signal 2A. Such circuitry is well known, and thus details thereof are not needed herein. Decoder 15 determines whether its input has received a code signal and, if so, it outputs signals 7A and 9A, respectively corresponding to the code signals 7 and 9, to controller 17. Signals 7A and 9A can be respectively identical to the code signals 7 and 9 obtained from broadcast signal 2 via receiver 11, or they can be a minimally changed version thereof (e.g., amplified), or they can be a substantially changed version, depending on the specific signals and the encoding/decoding technique chosen and based on well known design considerations.
Controller 17 can be a suitable microprocessor chip that is programmed to implement a sequence of operations for recognizing when certain tuning criteria have been met and, if so, to trigger reward processing circuit 35 into retrieving reward printing data from memory 39 for use in printing a reward on printer 37. More details of controller 17 are provided below.
Apparatus 3 is a conventional part of a commercially available video and/or audio instrument, such as a TV set. Apparatus 10 could be embodied as a separate box that houses all of its components. Apparatus 10 is located in the viewers home. Only minimal retrofitting of the TV, for example, would be required in order to implement the invention, such as connecting the broadcast receiver 11 (e.g. TV tuner) to the decoder 15. The connection to the TV set could be with a direct line or by remote signal transmission (e.g. RF, infrared, sonic). Other than that, the installation of the box housing apparatus 10 is very simple in that it just needs to be plugged into the socket of a wall outlet to receive power. Only a one-time, fast, simple installation is involved that requires no retrofit of other apparatus in the house.
Alternatively, apparatus 10 could have its circuitry incorporated into the electronics of the TV. For example, the electronics could be fabricated on the semiconductor chip used to control operation of a TV and the viewing of programs on it. Such TV chips are becoming increasingly sophisticated with modern TVs being provided with added functionality approaching that of a computer. The cost of adding such circuitry to a TV chip is minimal considering the large number of chips over which the cost would be spread.
The parameters for the reward issuance criteria are stored in memory 38. A key aspect of that technique is that the reward issuance criteria specify a minimum number of ID codes and/or event codes that must be detected within a designated interval. For, example, the interval can be the duration of a certain program, a certain time of the day, any period of a certain duration, or an entire day.
The ID reward issuance parameters and event reward issuance parameters are stored in memory 38 with a one-time, preset, fixed data storage operation. Alternatively, memory 38 can be of the rewritable type to which a reward issuance criteria signal 66 is input. Signal 66 can be provided via a transmission medium, such as a telephone line to device 10 provided for this purpose. Alternatively, signal 66 can be transmitted in combination with programming signal 5, in the same way as codes 7 and 9 are combined therewith. This could occur once per day or as needed.
In order to issue the rewards, such as by printing, reward print data memory 39 holds the necessary reward output data which includes all of the data specific to the particular reward that is required in order to print it. Such data includes, for example, the text, font, graphics, formatting, symbols, background color, font color, and so on. Alternatively, this data can be provided via the above-mentioned transmission medium or it can be included in a reward data signal which is combined with programming signal 5 and transmitted along with the programming signal as part of output signal 2, as disclosed in U.S. application Ser. No. 10/080,949, filed Feb. 20, 2002. A variation of this approach is to pre-store some of this data in memory 39.
Timer 14 is provided to enable apparatus 10 to carry out its time-related activities. Timer 14 is typically an accurate clock. Preferably, it should not be accessible for setting by the audience because this could lead to fraudulent issuance of rewards which depends on preset time intervals, as explained in more detail below.
Returning to FIG. 1, the ID and/or event codes are transmitted at a predetermined rate and timing. Details of when the codes are transmitted, how many are transmitted per unit of time, etc. are provided in U.S. Ser. No. 10/391,907. Suffice it to say for present purposes that the number of transmitted codes is significant because, inter alia, it impacts on the reward issuance criteria which are based on the number of detected codes. More specifically, controller 17 preferably includes counters for determining how many ID codes and how many event codes have been decoded by decoder 15 and input to controller 17 as signals 7A, 9A. Controller 17 determines whether the preset number of ID codes that is stored as an ID reward issuance parameter has been exceeded. If it has, then the ID reward is printed. If the interval has been exceeded, then the ID counter is reset and, likewise, the event counter is reset, so that the next interval begins with a count of zero. A similar procedure is performed with respect to the event codes in that controller 17 checks to determine whether the preset number for the event codes has been exceeded. If it has, then a print of the reward is made promptly and automatically.
When controller 17 determines that a reward is to be issued, a signal is inputted to reward processing circuit 35 and reward print data memory 39 (FIG. 1). Reward processing circuit 35 utilizes the data retrieved from memory 39 to print the appropriate reward via printer 37, as explained above.
As stated in U.S. Ser. No. 10/391,907, different rewards can be provided for exceeding the criteria for each of the event code and the ID code. Likewise, different rewards can be issued relative to the length of the total viewing period, based on the number of detected codes. The more codes that are detected, the more valuable is the reward. Also, a different interval in terms of length, date and/or time can be provided for the detection of the event code and the ID code. In addition, rather than making only a single reward available, multiple rewards can also be provided for the detection of a preset number of the event code and/or the ID code. Also, the reward can be issued other than by printing. For example, rather than printing the reward as a coupon made of paper and ink, the reward data can be outputted to a portable electronic storage device, such as a smartcard. The smartcard could be inserted into a reader at a merchant's shop designed to read the reward data and enable redemption without the necessity to use paper and ink. Other possible variations include combining memories 38 and 39. Furthermore, the sequence of steps in the flow charts depicted in the drawings can be modified with equivalent results.
The technique disclosed in U.S. Ser. No. 10/391,907 is a valuable contribution to the prior art. It effectively achieves the aim of rewarding an audience member's viewership without requiring any active incentive-related participation by the viewer other than to tune in to particular program. The determination of whether or not to issue a reward is based on detection of codes 7 and/or 9, regarding which the viewer can remain completely passive. However, it is this passivity which leaves an opening for possible misuse or abuse of this technique. In particular, the viewer need not, in fact be actively viewing the program as long as the TV is tuned to the program and codes are being received by apparatus 10. Thus, an example of misuse is a viewer who has fallen asleep in front of the TV for an extended period. Such a person is tuned in to the program, but cannot be truly counted as a viewer. An example of abuse is a viewer who turns on the TV in the morning and then goes to work for the day. While the person is at work, the codes are being detected, counted and applied toward meeting the reward issuance criteria. It is desirable to eliminate such situations from qualifying for rewards.